Herman Wouk is Still Alive - Stephen King

Stephen King published a new short story in the Atlantic and can be read here for free.  As always, Stephen King's strength is developing characters.  He has this amazing knack for writing characters so believable and clearly realized that you swear he is modeling them after real people in his life.  Not only that, but he can do it with only a few paragraphs.  In this new story, King introduces two characters you would likely see on a website like People of Walmart, a couple of women you couldn't help stare at in disbelief (and probably disgust).  Of course being a King story, they are set on a tragic path that we follow to the bitter end.

The Last Post of Blogger Derek Miller

Derek Miller, blogger from Vancouver, CA, died this past week and left a final message that his family posted after his death.  He was 41 and lost a long fight with colorectal cancer.  He seems to have found peace in the end, and shares this in his message.  Read his last post here.

Solomon Burke - Greatest Hits

I just recently was introduced to Solomon Burke's music.  I have never really gotten into classic R&B, just kind of admired it from afar.  But that was a mistake.  Hearing one of the kings of soul music at the top of his game is like a breath of fresh air.  This is the kind of music that will put a smile on your face, just good old-fashioned rythym and blues.  Take a listen to some of his most well-known songs below, and then go and get his greatest hits album.

This first one you will recognize from the Blues Brothers cover...

The Hobbit - Behind the Scenes (Part 1)

I must admit that when I heard a few weeks back that Peter Jackson chose to film The Hobbit using 3D for dramatic effect, in order to "give a point of view" I got a pretty bad feeling about these movies.  Did anyone who saw the Lord of the Rings trilogy think, yeah this is good but if only it was shot in 3D... How does adding a third dimension add to the great storytelling of Middle Earth?  I could go on, but I think this recent surge in the third dimension in films will die all by itself life just like all the past incarnations.

So coming in with this skepticism I saw Jackson's first installment of the behind the scenes filming of the Hobbit.  Needless to say, just getting a glimpse of the care and detail that Jackson puts into filming these epic stories reminded me of the miracle he put together to get the trilogy filmed.  So, I will put my skepticism aside and be optimistic that he will do an amazing job just as we have come to expect.  Just hearing the Hobbiton theme song and seeing the sets in this video got my nerd-side excited.

The Civil War and Lincoln Assasination From Both Sides

Recently I've been reading Gore Vidal's Lincoln and was reminded of a book I read a few years ago, American Brutus, by Michael Kauffman.  Both tell the story of the Civil war years and the events leading up to and following the assassination of Lincoln, with American Brutus from the viewpoint of the assassin Booth and his fellow conspirators, and Lincoln primarily from the viewpoint of Lincoln and his administration.  What makes them so much more than a dry recitation of historical events is they both are written as pieces of fiction, detailing all the events large and small in a cohesive story.

Instead of leaving out key events and conversations that are not documented in the written histories, both authors attempt to fill in those gaps with dialogue and actions of the main characters that can only be guessed on.  This way the characters become more fully formed and believable than you might see from history books, experiencing real human emotions.  You might think that the creative license taken by these authors may take away from their credibility, and you may have been right if these stories were left to less capable hands.  But clearly these authors have done their homework, and their historical guesswork mixes in flawlessly with historical facts.  It's fascinating to see those small moments of laughter, humilation, anger, and fear being experienced by these (until now) very set-in-stone and unknowable characters in history.  So these books give you the best of both worlds, great insight into events that laid the foundation for this country, and a top-notch story full of characters to keep you turning the pages.

Marwencol - Independent Lens

I was watching tv the other night and stumbled upon this documentary on PBS Independent Lens and it sucked me in.  It told the story of a man finding his way while  recovering from a brutal attack after a night at the bar.  He was targeted by a group of guys just because they overheard he liked to cross-dress.  The attack left him in a coma, and emotionally and physically scarred almost beyond repair.

The story of his recovery would have been interesting in itself, but his choice of self-therapy is what really blew my mind.  To escape the torture of the memories, he buried himself in a make-believe world of his creation.  He created a miniature town in his yard, Marwencal, and filled it with characters from his life.  He dressed up dolls to represent the townspeople and played out imagined story-lines.

But his creation would have gone unknown to everyone but a few people close to him, if not for his photography skills.  It turns out he had an instinctive knack for photography that he would use to capture scenes of his dolls in his imaginary town.  The documentary shows how by chance his photos were seen by a professional photographer, which lead to his very private collection of photos being exposed to the art-world.

At the core of this amazing film is the story of this genuine underdog.  A man with his world torn to shreds, and in the aftermath finds a way to channel his pain and anger into works of art that transcend his private experience and go on to inspire others.  It's a must-see.  You can check out re-runs on PBS.  Below are some of his amazing photos and the trailer for the documentary.  Here's the website for the film.

The Civil War - A film by Ken Burns

I am a huge Ken Burns fan. It's funny, when you watch a Ken Burns documentary, you think yep, this is exactly the way a documentary should be.   But then you realize no one made documentaries quite like this until he came along.  We all know it when we see it, that now-famous Ken Burns style: 1) telling a story from the perspective of a range of characters (from presidents to housekeepers) that we'll follow through the whole unfolding drama, 2) a 3rd person narration throughout the film with voice actors filling in quotations from characters in the story, 3) photographs depicting scenes from the subject matter that are zoomed in on and panned to mimic a moving image and provide better context, and 4) a musical soundtrack with a mix of era-specific tunes and modern-day originals to highlight story events.

Of course, these are the technical details of the Ken Burns style that wouldn't matter much if Ken Burn's story telling skills were not on the same level.   Luckily, Burns is up to the task.  He can take on a topic as focused as Lewis and Clark's expedition or as broad as Baseball or our National Parks, and tie together a compelling narrative that he can hold together for a 10-part, 10-hour miniseries, just as easily as an hour-long episode.

So I had seen just about every Burns documentary, except for his first and maybe his most famous, The Civil War.  Recently I started reading Gore Vidal's book Lincoln and decided I could watch the Civil War documentary sort of simultaneously (recently getting Netflix streaming on my blu-ray player also helped).  So I'm watching it, and it's awesome.  And you might think that 11 hours is a little more time than you'd like to spend watching a documentary.  But I find it's just like the WWII drama Band of Brothers. Once you finish the last episode, 10 hours in, you are easily ready for 10 hours more.

Below is the trailer for the series.  And just because I can... below that is Bob Dylan's video for "Cross the Green Mountain," which is a great song (shortened for the video) from the perspective of a confederate soldier from the soundtrack for the film Gods and Generals.  Dylan loves to play dress-up.

THE CIVIL WAR SERIES: Movie TrailerJason Robards, Ken Burns